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THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Great Names Protected By Law.
E
VERY manufacturer and every dealer in this country is in-
terested in name protection because unless there be a proper
safeguard thrown about great names, encroachments may be made
from time to time which will seriously imperil the interests of thou-
sands of men.
It is not merely the men who manufacture and whose interests
lie in a factory alone, but it is the men who sell the instruments—
who place them in the homes of purchasers. They are just as
vitally interested in seeing that names are protected from unjust
encroachment as are the men who make the instruments themselves.
In other words, the two departments, manufacturing and sell-
ing, are so closely interlocked and their interests are so completely
united that what affects one must immediately affect the other, and
if the great names are to be demolished then where do piano
values go?
The answer is easy. They crumble. The stability is lacking,
but the courts of this country have decreed that proper protection
should be afforded and the triumphs won by The American Piano
Co., and recorded in the columns of The Review last week, show
fully that the tendency of the court decisions is to safeguard the
great names from encroachments.
No man can deny the fact that the names Chickering and Knabe
count for much in the music trade world.
They are the names which have been associated with the piano
industry since its earliest days, and they stand not merely for senti-
mental values, but for quality values.
They have won a position on account of values represented,
and the names amount to more than merely family patronymics,
for they carry with them the assurance of musical and artistic worth
which is most desirable to maintain. #
Such decisions as were recorded last week in these columns
establish a precedent which will be indeed difficult to overlook in
future litigations.
It would seem, therefore, that the courts regard name value in
the same way that they do property value of any other kind, and
as such they must be protected.
Thus the entire music trade scores a victory, the importance of
which cannot be underestimated.
Musical Appreciation in Southern States.
M
USIC trade men in the Southern States are very enthusiastic
over the increased appreciation of musical instruments—
manifested in the increasing sales not only of pianos, but player-
pianos. In the latter field, especially, little has been done to interest
the musical people of the South up to a recent date, but many enter-
prising piano merchants are now carrying on active educational
campaigns with the object of acquainting music-loving people with
the possibilities of the player-piano, and it would seem as if there
were to be a large market for the player in a majority of the
Southern States.
The Southern people have always been noted for their culture—
for their love for music—and now that prosperity has reached them
in a larger measure than ever before, this section of the United
States is destined to prove a most satisfactory market for all kinds
of musical instruments. For many years after the Civil War the
South had been in a state of coma, so to speak. Agriculture was
about the only industry; to-day the new South looms up large—
stands out boldly for recognition as a section with many industries.
Agriculture is now carried on on a scientific basis. A land that
formerly yielded but a quarter of a bale, now under normal condi-
tions yields from one-half to one and one-half bales of cotton, to the
acre. The increase in production does not apply to cotton alone, but
to wheat, corn, oats, fruit, melons and vegetables of all kinds. The
vast mineral resources of the South which so long lay dormant
are now being developed. Hundreds of mills to manufacture all
kinds of cotton fabrics have been built, and are offering lucra-
tive employment. Instead of an average of a bank to each coun-
try, as in the past, there is a bank, State or National, to be found
in nearly every town of a thousand inhabitants, and from two to
five in larger towns, which are ample and are capable of furnishing
the farmer, the merchant, the manufacturer, needed money at a
low rate of interest for the carrying on of their respective busi-
nesses. They are, thereby, enabled to discount their bills, or pay
cash for their merchandise, supplies, etc.
The majority of the establishments devoted to the retailing of
pianos and musical instruments in the South are no longer handi-
capped by obsolete methods. They compare favorably with the
majority of warerooms in the North. They have adopted the best
modern ways and means for the handling and displaying of their
wares. Traveling men covering the South are a unit in declaring
that with the present trend of things the people of the South promise
to be large consumers of pianos and player-pianos from now on—
everywhere there is evidence of industry, thrift and enterprise—a
prosperous, happy and cultured people striving onward and upward.
The Few Doing the Work for the Many.
T
HE lack of interest displayed by the members of the average
merchants' association is so admirably set forth by the
Grocery World of Philadelphia that it has a pertinent application
to conditions in the music trade industry. It covers the situation
so accurately that it may be read without changing a word of the
context:
"What a lot of laggards there are in retail merchants' associa-
tions ! Take any association you like and analyze it, and you will
find that its working heart is composed of a very few men, often
not more than a dozen. The others can be divided into those who
come to the meetings, pay their dues and sit by but say nothing,
though these may nevertheless be loyal and useful members; and
those who sometimes come and sometimes don't who accept no
appointments to committees, or, if they do,'lie down on their task;
in fact, who never lift a hand in the association work. They may
keep up their dues, because in some way they think it will pay them,
or, more creditably, because they want help— in this small way—
the association.
"The curse of retail merchants' associations to-day is that they
are not associations at all, but little groups of men bearing many
drones upon their shoulders. An association of two hundred mem-
bers of which twenty-five really work, is an association of twenty-
five, not two hundred, and the balance of its bulk is not an asset, but
a liability."
The salvation of retail merchants in the quick evolution of
commerce now going on seems to depend more on concerted action,
frankness between competitors, the exchange of ideas, and united
resistance to unfairness, than it does on anything the individual
dealer may do. However, it daily becomes more important that
existing associations ginger up and perform, to some degree, the
functions for which they were organized.
The time has arrived when it is money in the pocket of every
member to be active in his association. He should open his eyes
and realize that forces are at work which require him to do some-
thing. He must learn to join hands with men in his own town and
business whom he is prone to think of as antagonists, and work
unitedly with them for the common defense.
Secretaries of associations rack their brains for some way to
bring members to the meetings, make them pay their dues, make
them active on committees, and keep them from drifting out of the
association. Nothing, however, will save a man who does not want
to be saved. Until the business men realize that every member
must be active, it is useless for the more earnest members to tease and
coax and urge men who cannot see an inch beyond their noses.